In almost all endeavors of life, at some point you become washed up. Done D. Yesterday’s news. It happened to Baby Peggy at the age of 6. She was an actress in the Roaring ‘20s when Hollywood was dazzling the world by cranking out silent movies (to be accompanied by piano or organ music in theaters).
She’s 97 now and lives in anonymity in central California. The Hollywood Reporter tracked her down and got what likely will be the final interview from any star of that era. From THR:
“At the peak of her fame, the tiny film actress was an obsession for millions of Americans who bought Baby Peggy dolls, jewelry, sheet music, even brands of milk — and this was decades before the phrase "ancillary profits" even had been invented. … But, as if to foreshadow the fate of countless other future Hollywood child stars, she faced the inevitable crash that followed her meteoric rise. By 1925, at the ripe old age of 6, the roles started drying up, Principal Pictures … let her go following a dispute with her father, and her parents would spend nearly every dime she had made.”
That would be more than a million dollars, the equivalent of $14 million today. But Baby Peggy (now Diana Serra Cary) doesn’t sound bitter when she talks about a disastrous investment in a Wyoming ranch and the stock market crash of 1929.
I’ll close with her assessment of the movie biz: “My doctor has a daughter who wants to be an actress. I’m always telling him to discourage her. There is no future in it. Unless you have good connections and start off early.”
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